It's not a fear
by Ifthetapshoefits
Summary: Draco discovers hermiones hidden talent and is determined to spill the beans but what happens when he suddenly feels guilt and decides to help her with her fear? reviews are good for encouragment! :)
1. Chapter 1

Hermione walked through the hall ways, headed towards the room of requirement. She had that feeling again, she got this feeling every time she would make her way to practise her...hidden talent, shall we say. She felt as of someone was following her. As is some one was watching her. But, every time she turned around to search for the intruder but there was no one in sight. She had just ignored the feeling as she had been sneaking out like this to practise and to perfect her abilities for about 2 weeks now and justntold her self that she was just worried.

She was oblivious that someone actually was following her though. Draco Malfoy. He was the unknown culprit to her worrying and contant consciousness of all her surroundings. He hid in the shadows to ensure he could not be seen. He knew she had a secret and was determined to spill it once he had discovered it. This time however was different. He hadnt notice within the past two weeks, she had another pair pf shoes with her. They looked like a shoes a man would wear, with a heel of just under half an inch. They were black leather shoes and were laced with black elastic. He didnt know why she would be in possesin withbthese shoes so w determined to reach the door this time , unlike previous attempts, and actually slip in through the door before it had transformed in to a broom closet. She had opened the door and had slipped in. Draco managed to slip in aswell this time. he had noticed that there was two metal plates on the soles her shoe, one covering front part of sole and the other covering the heel.

_Who would wear shoes like that? _Draco thought_ they would slippery as hell to_

_walk in! That would be funny! Watching granger fall flat on her back side ha ha!_

She slipped the shoes on and walked over to a CD player, powered by the magical energy that the rest pf the school runs on, because Hermione is smart like that. Draco was hidden in the shadows so that he could not be seen by Hermione. He could hear the shoes clapping against the ground as she walked. She took off the hoodie she was wearing to reveal a red lacey leotard underneath, Draco didn't know what she was wearing but that didnt matter to him, all he cared anout was that it wa very tight and and outlined curves that no one knew she had. Her new discovered, excellent, figure had definately caught his attention. She was also wearing a pair of black leggings that compliment her long, slender legs very well. Draco didnt care if he was now remotely attracted to the hodden image of Hermione granger, purely because his father was in azkaban, therefore could not rule over him and make decisions for him, and his mother was now...happy? He had never seen this side of her before his father was arrested but she was very pleasant to be around.

Hermione reached the CD player and inserted a disc, she pressed play and walked over to the middle of the room and a very upbeat song started to play, she started to move along with the music and her feet began to make noise against the floor, tapping and gliding over the floor whilst making "brap" sounds on the floor. Draco could tell that she wass very skilled and very talented. He couldnt wait to toy with her thoughts using this secret of hers as leverage.

A/N: hope you like it! First fanfic, no flames please :) oh and btw, if you didnt get that, hermione is a professional tap dancer, but has kept it secret from every one ate hogwarts. Fnx xx


	2. Chapter 2

Draco woke up the following morning surprisingly happy... For once. People like Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson kept asking him questions like

Why are you so happy?

Were you drugged?

And all the replies they got were either the infamous Malfoy smirk or a shrug. They were baffled.

Pansy had finally come to her senses and stopped chasing Draco after she ealised they had no chance together and someone else had caught her eye.

When they had reached the great hall for breakfast after getting ready and showering etc, evry one had stopped and stared as an oblivioius Draxo Malfor walked in and started...whistling? Every one had stopped exactly what they were doing and gaped At the sound of him whistling and being happy of a morning, you see, Draco Malfoy is well known for his bad moo of a morning. The whole hall was in shock. He scanned the hall and then he came across Hermione Granger and winked at her!

She furrowed her brows in confusion and resumed eating. He then started whistling on of the tunes that she had practised to last night. She shot him a worried gaze and he winked again. She began to worry frantically.

"hey mione, what's the matter?" asked Ron "you look worried"

"oh just forgot my essay for professor Slughorn I'll meet u at potions" replied Hermione. She rushed straight to her common room, as she head girl, along with Ernie MacMillan and ran up the stairs to her own bed room. Once she reached the door, she searched for her dance shoes and started panicing majory. Shethen came to her senses and realised that it must have been just a coincidence that he was whistling a tune that was similar to one of the tracks that she was practising to.

After her sudden epiphany, she made her way down to potions. Potions went quite swiftly as all the lesson was just a lecture from Slughorn about sleeping draught and Hermione had read up on that last saturday durng her weekly visit to the library. So she just sat there wondering what tracks she would, practise tonight, she started to make a list.

_Tonights list_

_Warm up_

_Quick jazz_

_Begine _

_Scuffles_

_Maxi-fords turning_

_Blues_

_Schottishe _

_Cool down_

She folded the listvand inserted it into her inside pocket of her robe. The time had then come for the class to end and lunch had started. All the way through lunch she was mre relaxed than ever. She was peacefully eating her lunch, sitting next to Harry and across from Ron and diagonal from Ginny. They were all talking about wizarding chess and how apparently, Ron is much better then Harry. After lunch had finished, all the seventh years had a the rest of the day pff due to it being a friday. Hermione used this to her advantage and decided to start practicing early to get as much perfection of the movement and sound of her feet possible.

She made her way down the familiar route, with her black leather tap shies dangling from her index and middle fingers, the metal taps facing backwards and her CD in her laft hand. She was yet again wearing black leggings and a hoodie. And yet again, she had that feeling. She look around before she placed her hand on the handle of the doors that magically appeared infront of her. And yet again, Draco had also slipped in through the doors as Hermione made her way to the CD player. Draco conjured up a chair once hidden by the shadows using a silent spell and sat down with a disollusion (sp?) charm so he could not be seen. He watched her remove her jumper and saw that, rather than have a leotard on, she was wearing a green, tight fitted, sports bra-like crop top. And again her stunning figu had caught his attention, more somthis time as she had revealed from the waist band of her leggings to just under to where her bra would be. She then walked to the middle of the floor and faced the mirror that had suddenly appeared. He watched her move her arms differently than yesterday to differrent music. He couldnt quite see her feet as they re moving so fast, shuffling, scuffling and brushing against the floor.

He noticed that she kept getting slightly frustrated at the same point in the song that had no words. He timed it this time with his muggle watch, he had kept it hidden under neath his sleeve so his fellow students were not able to see it. She had stopped the track at exactly 1 minute 24 seconds and rewond and slowed down the tempo so that she could improve the foot work, she did this for another 7 minutes, according to Dracos watch and then sped the music up again, he had finally been able to see the ending of the dance.

The next song, Draco had noticed, was a spanish styled piece of music. He was very observant of her during this dance. He could have called "sexy tap" due to the way her shoudlers shifted in unison to her arms and her legs in a opposite directions. And the way she Shifted eyeline and the way her head snapped in the direction of her feet but her gaze kept high. The way her side fringe kept gettin in the way of her eyes, yet she refused to brush it away because she was too engrosed in the dance to care. Just then, an idea had popped into his head to go further with the toying of Hermiones Anxiety.

A/N : ooooooooohhh! Cliffy! Wonder what Draco is gonna do to Hermione, hehehe ;)


	3. Chapter 3

That night, Draco went back to his common room, having put a silencing charm on his shoes and still under the disollusion charm, and immediately started writing letters and got out his pair of his black, leather work shoes, that he thought were almost similar to tap shoes - minus the metal on the bottoms. He had duplicated enough pairs for all the ravenclaws to wear a pair, they all had a charm on them that adjusted to the size of the wearers feet. He had composed his letter.

_Ravenclaws, _

_You are probably really confused right now, but dont worry, all your questions will have been answered by the time you have finished reading this letter._

_I have sent you a package of shoes, there is enough for all of your house's students to wear a pair and keep for what ever uses you may need them for. They will also have a size adjustment charm on each pair. In order to keep these shoes, i must ask each and every one of you to wear a pair tomorrow. That is not all that i ask of you, the next instruction is simple but effective, every time you see the one and only Hermione Granger, you must to proceed to tapping you feet on the ,ground even in lesson under the table. _

_I will not give you any hints or clues as to who I am due yo safety precautions, and i have also secured 10 galleons in each shoe that will only be released if you complete this task that i have asked of you. _

_Hoping that you complete this task, _

_Anom._

__Once he had finished this letter, he had also sent a replica to his own house and the hufflepufs, not the gryffindors, there was no oint in asking them as they would never do it any way, gryffindor pride and stuff. After sending all of the Packages and letters to the appropriate houses via owls from the owlery, he was satisfied and went straight tot bed.

The next morning, Hermione woke feeling refreshed and excersized. She got up, jad a shower and waited for Harry and nRon in then common room before the trio made their way down to the great hall for breakfast. Hermione and the two boys entered the hall. Two mornings in a row, the hall full of students fell silent and stared at the three that stood frozen at the door, in shock that all of the attention had been throw at them.

Once the students had realised that in order to gain the 20 galleons from the pair of shoes, they had to tap their feet on the floor. The hall suddenly errupted in the sound of tapping on the floor, Hermione had then became very confused but suspicious and worried all at the same time. She, Harry and Ron then made their way to their usual seats. Hermione suddenly felt the timgling sensation you get before you get a migrane. She could tel that Harry and Ron were also sharing this feeling as they did not say a word to anyone, in attempt to reduce the noise as much as possible.

She left the great hall early and decided to skip tonights session of practice as there were too many risks of her secret going public. Once she had closed thedoors to the great hall behing her. She immediately heard the noise level from behind the doors hush to almost silence. She was now, obviuosly, much more suspicious. She made her way to her first lesson, transfigurations, and entered the class early. She waLkewd through the door closing it softly once all the way through it and made her way to her usualy seat, second row, in the middle. She heard the door open and saw Professor McGonagall walked in and half expected to see Hermione sitting there already at her seat.

"good morning, Miss Granger" said the Professor, without even the need to look at her to see who it was.

"morning Professor" replied Hermione. The Professor stalked over to her seat and sat down behind her desk and began to mark a few more of the second years' essays on transforming animals into water goblets.

"did you have any idea for the cause of the foot tapping of almost all of the students in the great hall earlier?" asked Hermione.

"no I am afraid not. Although, i did seem that the tapping only occured in your presence, that only makes me suspicious." said the professor, looking up from the essays.

Hermione furrowed her brows in confusion and went into deep thought and concentration, listing all of the people that could even be remotely suspicious. She then remembered yesterday morning, when Draco had walked in whistling a tune that was similar to the begine track. The door then re-opened and Harry and Ron entered, her train of thoughts coming to a hault. She smiled at them as they took their seats, Harry on her left And Ron on her right. Sheknew why they had made sure she was in the middle, it was so that they could both get a clear view of her notes. She was very amused by this and didnt mind it that much because they were her best friends and she could always use this as leverage against them.

The rest of the class soon entered and sat down at their usual seats, the tapping of leather shoes, she had noticed, then resumed. Half way through the class, she had had enough of the constant tapping underneath the tables and had decided to make sure it was only in her presence that it occured. She had written a note to Harry,

_Does the tapping stop when i leave? _

She then raised her hand and as expected, thr professor asked her what her question was

"may i use the restroom, please?" asked Hermione

"be quick" was the professor's responce. Hermione then slipped Harry the note and left the room. She didnt go to the rest room but waited outside the door for about 3-4 minutes and then re-entered the class room. As soon as the door opened she heard the tapping continue and saw that there was a reply on her note to Harry.

_Yes why?_ Is all it said

_No reason, just wondering _Their conversation via notes was then ended.

She then realised that she would jave to find the person who knew about her secret. And she would have to find out soon.

That day for Hermione was a very slow day, with the tingling sensation at the back of her head and the occasional migrane every time she was even in sight of anyone that wasnt a gryffindor. She decided that she would definately go and practice tonight but be determined to find out who had been spying on her during these sessions.

Later that night, she had again, got ready in her common room and got ready to dance. She had reached the room of requirement and was more confidnt that she had ever been in her whole life, but was still abit nervous. She slipped through the door and walked over to the CD player, like she did everytime.

Draco had wanted to show someone about his secret and so asked his best friend, Blaise Zabini, if he wanted to come and see why everyone had started tapping their feet at the sight of Hermione Granger. Of course he agreed and so Went with Draco through the halls down to the room of requirement and waited along side Draco, around the corner from the door and then saw Hermione enter the room. He looked to Draco, with a confused look o his face. Draco just shhed him placing his index finger up to his lips. They both then made their way to the door before it had disappeared and opened it slightly. Draco had transformed the arm chair he had sat on into a couch and both him and Blaise had sat down. Draco watched with amusment when he saw Blaise's eyes almost pop out of his head when he saw Hermione take off her hoodie revealing a very sexy six pack and purple crop top, similar to the one she war last night. She then sat down on the floor and pulled out of the bag, her black leather tap shoes. Blaise immediately saw the resemblance between her shoes and the ones that he was wearing, Draco's duplicates.

Hermione walked over to the CDayer and inserted a CD, pressed play and walked to the centre of the room and started the begine dance! This is the dance that she had had a little bit of trouble with the foot work in the middle.

Blaise immediately recognised the tun. As the one that Draco was whistling when he had woke shockingly pleasant. He turned to Draco and noticed that he was watching intently to the movement of her arms, shoulders and the sound that her feet were making against the floor.

He then heard "awwww for fuck sake!" and was astonished as to hearing Hermione Granger swear. He heard Draco chuckle at his reaction and then nudged him playfully in the side with his elbow. Blaise being the moschevious slytherin that he is, had brought a magical camera that took moving pictures. He had raised it so that it was pointed directly at Hermione and took many snaps of her in her revealing state, Draco was mentally kicking himself as he didnt think to do this in his previous visits.

Hermione he rewound the track around thirty second and had slowed down the tempo like she last night, with the flick of her wand and repeated the steps only focusing on the foot workand not bothering to insert the arm movements just yet.

Once she had finally been able to complete that dance with no mistakes, she had moved to the next track on the CD, the spanish music, or s Draco prefered, "sexy tap" Blaise watched Draco adjust him self on the seat to make him self more comfortable and smirked. Blaise couldnt blame Draco for being slightly aroused at the first sight of Hermione but then he realised that he was feeling little Blaise's presence through the tightness of his trousers rising. He then took a few more snaps of Hermione's now sweating figure and decided that if Draco isnt going to tell people about this, thehe definately would.

Hermione then walked back over to the CD player, as she thought that even though she had only perfected 2 dances, she had still worked hard and had done enough for that night. She took the shoes off and massaged her feet through her socks and put her jumper back on over the now soaked, crop top.

Blaise pouted when he saw Hermione covering herself with that hoodie and walk out, her tap shoes dangling from her fingers, the taps facing backwards. Seeing the metal on the bottom of her shoes, he had finally realised how her feet were making suh precise sounds.

Hermione had left the room of requirement and headed back to her common room without a care in the world as being head girl had meant that shehad no curfue. She had totally forgotten about her motive for this evening as she had been so frustrated on making the same mistakes as she did yesterday in thr same dance.

Meanwhile, still in the room of requirement,

"so when are gonna spill thses Beans then?"asked Blaise with a smirk painted on his face.

"i dont know, tomorrow at lunch? I have noticed that she wasnt there yesterday as i couldnt hear any tapping... And yes im the one who started that" said Draco with a smirk also on his face, almost replicating Blaise's

A/N:hope you like it! Oh and btw, im like the worst at keeping things in a steady time line so what i said about yesterday in the story being a friday... Ignore that and lets just say That it was a tuesday and this chapter had been based on a wednesday ;) sorry for any confusion xx

Thanks for the reviews guys x

Ill probably be writing tmoro coz i have mothing else to do and i know how annoying it is when people abandon their stories x


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, Hermione woke up feeling refreshed and ready for a new day, forgetting that there was someone out there that knew about her secret. Hermine had feared this day would come because, even though she was an excellent tap dancer, she had major stage fright. She got showered and dressed, applied only black eyeliner and headed down to the common rooms to wait for the other 2 thirds of the golden trio. Once she saw them both, they exchanged good mornings and they started to make their way down to the great hall for breakfast.

When they got there, they about 10 minutes later than usual because Ron had fogotten his divinations essay about half to the hall, so they had go back. When they finally reached the great hall, they opened the door and the hall fell silent... again.

"ahhh, speak of the devil" Hermione heard Draco say from the front of the hall, standing along-side Blaise.

Hermione then became very anxious as to what theybwere telling their fellow students about. The professors were not concerned about what was occuring, by the looks of it, they were intriuged as to what the bys at the front were saying.

"_accio tapshoes" _said Draco and with the flick of his wand, her tapshoes came shooting out of her bag and into his hand. "our little Granger has been keeping secrets from all of us, did you know that Harry? Ron?" he said from the front of the hall, infront of the professors table. Hermiones face became as red as a tomato. She started to panic and looked at Draco and Blaise with a pleasing look in her eyes. "see now, Granger, puppy dog eyes arent goong to stop me from telling every body about your late at night practices. You see, fellow students, we have a talented dancer in the great hall, she has been keeping her takents a secret from every one on this room" he pointed his wand at the wall and a picture of Hermione in just a crop top, leggings and tap shoes appeared. It was huge.

"ahhh, yes, we have a tapdancer in the house" shouted Blaise " why dont you give us a demonstration?" the smirk on his face growing "its either that or we start the picture and it shows your skills for us" Hermione just shook her head. He pointed his wand at the picture and it started moving.

"We were going to tell you that we were planning on telling every body, but we chose not to because we wanted to see your face" Draco informed her.

The moving image of Hermione was her dancing to the begine track. Her arms floating and her feet scuffling against the floor. The real Hermione was abouut to turn around and go to her first lesson, divination, but then realised that Draco and Blaise had her tap shoes. She marched up to them and snatched her tap shoes out of their hands and went to turn back around to stalk back out of the hall, skipping breakfast, trying to avoid all of the eyes and glares she was getting. It didnt help that there was a picture of her on the wall of her in a very revealing state.

"ahhh, Granger, so you dont want to see the finale?" Draco asked

She spun back round and stayed silent. Watching the picture transform in to the scene of her frustration "awww for fuck sake!" said the Hermione in the picture. All of the students and teachers gasped at Hermine Granger goody two shoes say "fuck".

"oh sorry, not that, this is what i like to 'sexy tap' enjoy the show" the picture transformed again and spanish music could be heard. Harry and Ron were still standing infront of the doors, shocked and frozen at the sight that They were seeing. Hermione watched herself in the picture on the wall, glide andfloat across the floor, shuffling her feet on the floor.

All the boys' were on her from the picture. When the picture had stopped, Every single pair of eyes were on the real Hermione. She suddenly felt quezzy and really nervous. She placed her right hand over her mouth and her left over her stomach.

She dropped every thing she was holding, including her tap shoes and raced out of the hall and to the nearest girls bathroom. She ran for the nearest cubicle and leant over the toilet. She felt yesterdays dinner rise in her stomach. She started to gag slightly and then she burped, belched more like it, and as expected, yesterdays dinner came up with the belch and landed in the toilet. She felt so embarrased. She skipped her first lessons, Divination, and stayed in the cubicle, occasionally taking a sip of water but then realising her mistakes as it just re-appeared a couple of minutes later.

Lunch was the first time that day that anybody had seen her since breakfast. She walked into the great hall and ignored all the eyes and glares that were shot at her. She marched to the middle, where she was standing at breakfast, and picked up her bag and tap shoes, that hadnt been touched. She put her shoes in to her bag and slung it over her shoudler. She walked over to her usual seat at the gryffindor table and started eating like nothing happened this morning.

"where were you Mione?" asked Harry, a little concerned.

"in the toilet, bringing yesterdays dinner back up, why?" Hermione snapped "Im sorry, just frustrated and annoyed"

"whats wrong, why were you being sick?" asked Harry, Hermione could tell he was getting worried because his voice was now shaky and it was like his eyes were trying to pry into her soul and see what was on her mind.

"ever heard of stage fright" asked Hermione, turning her body so that she was facing him straight on.

"no, whats that?"

"its basically, when you perform of do something infront of an audience, no matter how big, your nerves build up and sometimes its to such an extent that the result is, you throwing up every 10 minutes or so for like an hour"

"oh" is all Harry said.

Ron couldnt say anything as his mouth was constantly full of food, and that he didnt want to make Hermione feel even more sick, by speaking with a mouth full of food.

Draco was staring at Hermione, sitting over at the gryffindor table, probably explaining her absence. He imagined her in her revealing outfit, just for him, he didnt care that he was attracted to her as there was no one that could say that he couldnt. He felt a nudge in left arm. It was Blaise's elbow.

"you wanna make a living out of Granger's talents?" Draco could tell that he had an idea as his eye brow was arched and his smug look said every thing that he needed to tell the cogs in his brain were definately turning.

A/N :sorry for short ish chapter, but atleast Its there forth chapt in 2 days, see i luv u all! mwaahh! ;) fnx for the reviews x


	5. Chapter 5

That night, Draco and Blaise had thougth of a very cunning plan to make alot of money. They had written a letterto every house except for gryffindor saying

_Hello, what ever house this is,_

_If you are interested in witnessing Hermione Granger, practicing her tap dancing, wearing a very revealing sports outfit, might i add, then meet myself, Draco Malfoy, and Blaise Zabini, in the corridoor behind the room of requirement on tuesday at 7:30pm._

_You must bring at least 3 galleons for entry fee and you must be under magical devices, blocking you from Granger's sight and hearing. _

_Malfoy and Zabini_

_P.s do not mention this to any of the gryffindors or Granger herself or it would risk exposure._

Draco sent the letter to all the hufflepuffs, ravenclaws and left one for his own house.

After feeling satisfied, he gave Blaise a look that said 'we're gonna be rich' in a singsong voice.

That night for Hermione, was very chaotic until she had reached her own common room. People kept asking questions, fussing over her and boys kept drooling over her, she found it very flattering, but very annoying!

Once she had actually managed to get to her common room, she dumped her school bag on the floor, slumped down on to the couch and started to re-read Hogwarts : A History.

The only time she had looked up from her book was when the portrait had swung open revealing Ernie.

"hey, Hermione" he said, swinging his robe over his shoulder and attempting to walk very seductively to the stair case that led to his bedroom.

Hermione was very shocked when he greeted her as he usually keeps himself to himself.

"hi, Ernie, whats up?" she asked

"oh nothing..." he replied with a goofy smile on his face. Hermione decided it would be best just to ignore his strange behaviour and just to continue reading.

During her reading, she had come to the conclusion that tuesday, everyone would have forgotten about her talent and it would be old new by then, or so she thought.

Friday, saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday morning, all went by pretty quickly, in the sense that, no one had bothered her about dancing or had glared or stared at her.

It was tuesday lunch, every body was in the great hall eating, when she suddenly realised that she could practice again. Her mood suddenly became ecstatic npand very questionable.

"whoa! Mione Ive never seen you this happy! Whats wrong?" asked Ron, very shocked indeed.

"hey! Im allowed to be happy without the need of interrogation, thankyou very much!" she playfully hit him on the arm. Harry scoffed, Also earning himself a playful smack on the arm.

Around 20 minutes later, they had all finished eating and started to make their way to DADA class. Much their dismay, their professor was Snape, so this was going to be fun, huh?

They got there along with the rest of the class and took their seats, waiting for Snape to come in.

Only 2 minutes later did he walk in to the class room, taking long strides and his robes floating behind him. With the flick of his wand, the text books floated to everyone and stopped when each occupied a different student. Snape waited until every student had a text book, before he finally spoke.

"page 174, questions 5 through 13, once you have finished, you will go with your designated partner for this term, over to the dueling platforms over there and use only the spells mentioned in the questions in your books to practice dueling"

Hermione's partner, unfortunately, was Draco. She sighed at the thought of having to interact with him and started the task at hand.

As usual, Hermione was first to finish. She walked up to Snape and handed him her piece of parchment with the answers on. She only had to wait about 30 seconds for Malfoy to finish.

"finished, Granger?" he shouted across the room

"yupp" was the only resonce he was given.

They both walked over a dueling platform and cliimbed on top, Hermione walked to the far end and Draco stayed put.

"you know, you may not see it, but there is still loads of talk and gossip about you going round school right now" said Draco! Walking from the middle, 8 steps and turning round to face Hermione.

"and whose fault is that?"

"fine then, dont thank me, all I did was give you all the attention you could get"

"you think I wanted all the attention, and besides, its old news now"

"oh, its far from old news"

_"conjunctivis" _shouted Hermione, getting off the platform and stalking off, leaving Draco behind, blinded.

The end of DADA had finally come. Hermione had raced off towards the heads common room and headed straight to her dorm to get changed into a burgundy hoodie, crop top and black leggings. She got out her sports bag, out her tap shoes in it, along with a water bottle, she was going to practice extra hard tonight, to make up for the sessions she had missed?

When she had reached the room of requirement, she had that feeling again, she chose to ignore it. She opened the door and slipped in.

Draco and Blaise were under the disollution carm and were standing around the corner, waiting for her to finally enter. They had raised around 200 galleons, just by doing this.

Once Hermione had entered the room, she started to make their way towards the door, followed by all of the other boys, there were no girls.

Once inside, they walked to the shadowey area of the room and conjured up chair for them to sit on. Draco and Blaise already had the sofa from previous visits.

They watched Hermione walk over to the CD player and in sert the disc, slip on her tapshoes and walk to the center of the room. She still had her hoodie on as it was quite cold as If the door had been open for too long.

She started the warm up and did it perfectly, so she just dismissed the track and moved in to the next. After about 5 tracks, she became very hot and so decided to remove her hoodie.

The boys all had silencing charms snd disollution charms placed on the area of the corner that they took up. So they found that wolf whistling and whooping would be appropriate.

Once Hermione had removed her burgundy hoodie, and revealed her dark blue croptop, she walked back in to the middle of the room and listened to the spanish music begin.

"oooooooh boys! Here comes the sexy tap!" shouted Blaise and Draco in unison.

The boys all watched as Hermione glided across the floor, tapping with her feet, shifting her shoulders and her arms in a very seductive way, according to the boys and their 'little friends'.

When the spanish dance had finished, the boys all whined and pouted. They all realised that Hermione was walking closer and closer towards their corner and became very scared and nervous. Every single one of them had thanked God when she had stopped right in front if the protective wall and didnt come any closer.

She started to travel to the opposite corner of the room, turning and makng fast rhythms against the floor with her feet, all at the same time.

The boys enjoyed this almost as much as the 'sexy tap', they way she swung her arms round to assist with the turn, the way her hair whipped round and hit her in the face after every full turn and the way she whipped her head roundand resumed her gaze to the spot on the corner tat she picked.

Her first turn was perfect, the scond was the same. The third, however, was disastrous. Her left foot had got caught on her right and she landed, face first on the floor.

"oooooooohhhhh, thats gotta hurt!" is what most of the boys had said. They originally thought that she was going to sit there and cry, but to theit amazement, she got up and tried again.

There was no improvement from the last attempt, the boys were even more amazed when she, again, got up and tried again.

The same thing happened on her third try.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" she said still on the floor, shocking the boys for the third time in a row and gettin back up and walking over to the corner again. Beads of sweat running down her back, her forehead and down her sides. She tightened her pony tail and tried the turning step again.

She did it slowly, without turning, when she could finally do that again, she re-tried to turn it. This time, however, the fall was even harder. She had landed on her back and had hit her head on the cold hard floor in the floor in the process. She was now laying on the floor unconscious.

Draco was the first to stand up, followed by Blaise. They both walked through the protective wall of silencing charms and disollution charms and walked over to Hermione.

Draco knelt down beside her, he lifted her head up with his right and placed it under the back of her head, feeling the bump slowly forming and bruising.

There was now a crowd of boys around, peering over and leaning in towards Hermione. Draco had removed his had from the back of Hermione's head because he noticed it was starting to get wet. Once he removed his hand, it was all red and bloody, he grimaced.

"we need to get her to the hospital wing" he said. He picked her up bridle style, getting glares of jealousy and smirked. He leaned her head against his chest and stalked over to the door. He couldnt open it himself as his hands were full, Blaise had opened the door to him and walked behind him all the way to the hospital wing.

"so ermm... Why are we doing this?" asked Blaise

"doing what?"

"taking Granger to the hospital wing"

"well we cant exactly let her bleed to death can we?"

"ooooohhh, i get it"

"get what?"

"you like Granger"

"excuse me?"

" you heare me, you like Granger"

"I do not!"

"you do to"

"do not"

"do too"

"ok maybe i think she is a little hot, but so did every othe. Boy that was in that room"

"yeah, but not as much as you"

"can we just drop the subject"

"fine, but only if you admit it"

"admit what"

"that you think Granger is really hot"

"fine, Granger is really hot. Happy now?!"

"yes"

A/N : the hospital scene will be in the next chapter ;)


	6. Chapter 6

Draco, Hermione still in his arms and her head still bleading, walked through. The doors to the hospital wing. Blaise had left left to "leave you two alone" Draco was not impressed at his comment.

"oh what happened dear?" askes madame pomfrey, gesturing to one of the closest empty beds.

"she fell and hit her head on the floor" replied Draco

"well, I will be back in a minute with some blood replenishing potion, healing potion and some pain relief potion. You may leave if you wish, thankyou for bringing here" she was about to leave for the potions when she suddenly turned back around and eyed Draco suspiciously. "what was she doing that caused her to hit her head?"

"cant you tell by by the shoes that she's wearing?" in a 'duh!' kind of way.

"ahhh yes, tap dancing, would you mind slipping her shoes off of her feet, so i can examine her ankels for any potential sprains, Mr Malfoy?"

"yes sure" he walked to the end of Hermione's bed and carefully un tied the laces of her shoes. He slipped the right shoe off first, then the left. He noticed that the right ankle was slightly swollen as it was much larger than the left.

Madame Pomfrey came back wit the three potions for Hermione and gasped at her ankles.

"what? Whats wrong?" asked Draco, mentally kicking himself for proving Blaise right by being worried for Hermione.

"it seems she has broken her right ankle, she will not be able to leave the hospital wing for atleast a week for the bones in her ankle to heel" she replied very calmly, this shocked Draco quite a bit _How could she be so calm? _He thought. "could you go to professor Snape and ask for him to brew some bone healing potions please?"

"ok...wait, but isnt professor Slughorn the potions master?" asked a very confised Draco.

"yes, but the last time I asked him for healing potions, yes they were adequate, but for the use on a hippogrif, and Ms Granger is definately not a hippogrif"

"ahh I see, ill go to professor Snape right away" and with that, Draco left.

He headed down towards Snape's chambers. Once he reached it, knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again but this time, a little louder. Still, no answer. This time, rather than just knocking, he was banging on the door with the side of his fist.

The door swung open with in seconds.

"What?!" asked an angry Snape.

"sorry sir, but madame pomfrey is asking for some more bone healing potion" said Draco

"Go and ask professor Slughorn, he os the potions master, not me"

"ah but you see sir, i did ask why madame pomfrey would ask me specificly to ask you, and she said, and i quote, the last time I asked him for healing potions, yes theywere adequate, but for the use on a hippogrif, and Ms Granger is definately not a hippogrif"

"and what would Ms Granger need a bone healing potion for?"

"for healing her bones sir"

"dont get sarcastic with me young man"

"sorry sir, she broke her ankle"

"how?"

"she fell over whilst practicing tap, sir"

"ah, I see, i shall have to the potion ready within an hour. You may chose to wait or come back when it is ready"

"I think Ill just wait sir"

"very well, fetch me the ingredients, will you please,if you dont know then there is a list in the cupboard"

Draco came back with all of the ingredients needed for the potion. Snape was standing by the cauldron, opening a case of utensils.

About an hour later, the potion was ready, Snape was now in the process of putting it all in vials. There was 23 vials for Draco to take back to madame pomfrey.

He had all the vials in a bag and succesfully reached the hospital wing, none of the vials had smashed in the process.

"oh thankyou. Snape didnt give you any trouble did he?" madame pomfrey asked.

"oh no, once i had told him about Slughorn, he looked rather relieved, by looks of it"

"well then, you best be off, its almost curfue"

"very well, good night madame pomfrey"

"good night Mr Malfoy"

As Draco left, madame pomfrey started to feed Hermione the potions.

The next morning, Hermione had woke up, freezing cold, wearing nothing but a dark blue crop top and a pair of leggings. The last thing she remembered was practicing tap. She then realised that she was in the hospital wing and groaned.

She then felt the rush of dizziness one gets just before a huge migrane begins. She closed her eyes and placed her hands behind her head, covering her face with her elbows and rolling on to her side. She became quite of her state and rolled onto her front, hiding her stomach from others and burried her face in the pillow.

She heard the door open but didnt react and mist laid still. Draco walked in yet she didnt care to find out whi he was. She heard his foot steps walking closer and closer towards her bed, she still didnt move, she just tried to fall back to sleep, ignoring the feeling of eyes boring into her bare back.

She was succesful at falling asleep, however her success only lasted for around 30 seconds until she felt something freezing cold being placed her back. It felt like hand. She reacted almost instantly and rolled over so her stomach was viewable.

"what the hell?! Who has hands as cold as yours?!" She shrieked before realising who it was.

"calm down! Its just me!" replied Draco

"what do you want?" she asked, sighing with slight relief ,that he wasnt some weirdo that just randomly puts their hands on bare backs.

"I came to visit"

"well go and visit who ever it is that yiur visiting then"

"Im afraia that I am"

"doesnt look like it"

"if i told you that it was you who I am visiting then would it look like it?"

"why would you be visiting me?"

"because I wanted to check and see if you are ok from the head injuries and the broken ankle thingy"

"how did you know about that?"

"oh I was there"

"what?!"'she started feeling queezy again.

"oh and it wasnt just me either"

"who else was there?" she sounded very serious.

"only like almost the whole of the male population of hogwarts, why?"

Hermione didnt reply, just sat up, placed her left hand on her stomach and her right hand over her mouth. She tried to stand up off of the bed but Draco held her shoulders down.

"whoa! You cant go anywhere, you are staying right here!" Draco said

"either you let me go, or I puke on you" She replied with a look ion her eyes that told Draco that she was telling the truth.

Draco released her shoulders and took a few stels back, making a clear pathway for Hermione.

Hermione, not realising that it was lunch, so all the students would be in the halls and roming the corridoors, and forgetting how revealing her out fit it, she raced to the nearest girls bathroom, wearing no shoes, and ignoring the wolf whistles that just made her more queezy. Once inside the bathroom, she headed to the nearest cubicle and threw up yesterdays dinner. She was not pleased.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital wing, Draco had realised that Hermione's bag and jumper were still in the room of requirement, as none of the boys would have thought of grabbing them for her.

Over the plast few days Draco had felt all his attention been spent on Hermione Granger, therefore, he thought it would only be fair to make it worth while and get her attention on him.

With that thought, he went to madame pomfrey, explained the situation with Hermione and left for the room of requirement. Once at the room of requirement, he imagined he dance studio that Hermione had been in yesterday and the door magically appeared. He slipped inside, picked up her bag, shoes and her jumper, and walked back to the hospital wing.

Once at the hospital wing, he put Hermione's stuff beside the bed that she was sleeping on. He had an idea of how to get Hermione's attention, he picked up her jumper, shoes and bottle of waterr and made nphis way to the nearest girls bathroom.

He entered with no shame and saw Hermione in the nearest cubicle, leaning over the toilet. He walked over, and sat down beside her.

"hey, i bought your jumper, shoes and stuff from the room of requirement"

"thanks"

"did you want a drink?" he asked

"no thanks, itll just come back up again" she said, lightly chuckling.

Draco smiled as she turned from the toilet and sat down next to him.

"so, why are you suddenly so... pukey?" he asked

"ever heard of stage fright?" she replied

"well, yeah, but i didnt know that it could be this bad"

"well, it can. So ermmm why are being nice?"

"if I told you, you would call me a liar"

"try me"

"I sort of... like you, well at first, i thought it was just seeing you wearing this" he gestured his hands up and down on her direction and she blushed "but come to thinK of it, i think it maybe more than just hormones"

She smiled at him and They waited for the next ten minutes in a pleasant silence, not awkward or uncomfortable, but pleasant.

Hermione then realised she was still only wearing her croptop, so reached for her jumper. Draco was too quick, with his seeker reflexes and grabbed the jumper before she even touch it. He ran away from her, to the other side of the bathroom and she followed.

"hey! Give it!" she shouted as running as fast as she could, with out slipping, in his direction. They both ran around the bathroom, Hermione chasing after Draco, in attempt to grab her hoodie, for another ten minutes before he decided to just give it t her.

"thank you" she said as slipping it on.

"hey, you didnt respond to me earlier, you just smiled and looked down"

"yeah, I know, i was just sort of in shock and just trying to thinK over the past week"

"yeah, ok"

"hey, so why did you do all of this if you "sort of... Like" me?"

"beause i didnt realise tou were going to get all pukey and i wanted every one to how good of a dancer you were, but at the same time, i also wanted to see your face as i told every one your secret"

"fair enough" she chuckled.

"anyways... Lunch is going to end to soon, so Ill be going"

"well, i have to discharge myself from the hospital wing anyways"

"oh and dont worry about having an invisible audience tonight if you go to practice, ill make sure no one goes" she smiled at him

"thanks" she said as she was slipping her shoes on.

She walked to the hospital wing with her bag hanging from her shoulder, ignoring the questioning stares she got from the other students due to her clothes.

She finally made her way back to the hospital wing and attempted to convince madame pomfrey that she was fine and neednt to skip any more classes. She was successful in being discharged but was sent straight back to the heads common room. She was stay there until tomorrow andnot leave, she had asked the house elves to bring her dinner.

A/N : next chap gna b up soon x And yes i know its quite strange, but it reflects on my personality perfectly ;)


	7. Chapter 7

That night, Hermione was not allowed to leave the heads common room, under the orders of madame pomfrey, and she was not going to disobey orders any time soon, considering she was already taking advantage of her head girl title, no curfue, late night practices.

The next morning was very frantic and frustratin for Hermione. She had forgotten about the "invisible audience" until she had been winked at and stared at for almost the entire day, only until lunch really. They had stopped staring after one boy had denied it after she had confronted him, she walked away with a smirk, leaving him covered with boils.

She had been satisfied and had not been bothered after that "incident" and decided that she would go andpractice tonight after she had been promised no hidden spectators.

After lessons, and being questioned of her absence by her friends, she was already exhausted but she was determined not to let a little bitof emotional strain get in her way of regular practice, and besides, she needed the excercize.

That day for Draco, however, had been full of guilt and jealousy, the other guys eyeing her and winking out in the open, whereas he could only admire what he had come to realise as beauty only yesterday, from a far. He needed to be with her and be close to her and apologise to her exposing her secret to every one, leading her... pukeyness...

An idea soon popped into his head, he was going to help her over come her stage fright, that way, he would be close to her, get her attention and make up for what he did.

That night Hermione went stragight to her dorm, got changed into the usual outift for dancing. This time, however, she had decided to wear a leotard and a t-shirt under her jumper rather than Just a crop top, she was not taking any second chances.

She had put her tap shoes in her bag along with her bottle of water! Slipped on a pair of black muggle converse and made her way down to the room pf requirement.

Once she was inside, she cast a revealing charm on the room that would show any unwanted spectators. Draco had kept his word, she had found no visitors.

She pulled off her jumper, her t-shirt was underneath, and slipped on her tapshoes. She walked over to the CD player and pressed play, hr CD was stil in there from tuesday night. As she was walking back to the centre of the room, she heard a knock on the door.

She stopped the music from playing with her wand, using a freezing spell and walked over to the door. She opened it and came face to face with Draco

"yes?" she asked

"i just wanted to ask youy something" he looked at his hands and she waited for him to speak but he stayed quiet.

"well?" she asked breaking the silence.

"i was wondering if you wanted any help"

"help with what?" she was having to pry the information out of him as was refusing to elaborate.

"with your stage fright" he said quietly.

"and how, pray tell, were you planning on doing that?"

"i dont know, ill think of something" he said a little bit louder, not sounding as shy anymore.

"o...k then" she said, dragging out the 'o' sound.

"can i come in?"

"I'd rather you didnt" she started fiddling with her fingers and fidgeting slightly.

"well then how are you going to get over your fear if you wont let me help?"

"its not a fear" she said through gritted teeth.

"im afraid it is..." he replied, shrugginh his shoulders in a 'what can you do?' kind of way

She sighed loudly opened the door further so he could enter and followed behind him as he walked over t the other side of the room.

"so how exactly are going to help me get over my _'fear' _then?" she asked, emphasis on the word fear.

"i dont know, errrmmmmm... try showing me some stuff, just me, no one else"

"i dont think so"

"fine, ill turn around then, ill even cast the disollution charm on my self if it makes it less nerving"

"fine" she growled.

"hey, wears your 'usual' clothing for these sessions anyway?"

"you think i would be taking any second chances? HA! You make me laugh, Malfoy"

"hey since Im helping you, and you arent trying to hex me to oblivion, did you want to go on a first name basis? Just not public"

"yeah , what ever"

'yes! First name basis! WHOOOOOOOOO!' he thought with a smirk on his face.

"what you smirking about?" she asked, catching him off guard.

"oh... Um... Just recalling the last time i saw you in here" his smirk growing bigger at that fast but witty comment, crossing his arms.

She grabbed on of her black converse and whacked him on the arm.

"hey!"

She replicated his smirk, turned on her heel and walked over to the CD player. She turned back around to face him before pressing play, pointed upwards and moved it in a circular motion, gesturing for him to turn around. Reluctant, he turned his back towards her, she pressed play and he could hear her steps as she walk to the centre of the room.

The music played and all draco could hear was the sound of her feet, he decided not to make any move turn around as he needed to build up the trust Hermione for him or it will spoill his attempt at making Hermione return the feelings that he shared for her.

Once the song was finished, Draco swivelled back round to face Hermione who was now stripped of her t-shirt and showing the dark blue leotard from underneath. It was v cut, not very low but still low enou to show a little bit of clevage.

Draco blushed and looked away as he did not expect to see her in less than a t-shirt while aware of his presence. Hermione just chuckled at his reaction and walked over to the CD player to change the track.

"hey, i have an idea" draco suddenly exclaimed as Hermione got to the CD player.

"what would that be?" she replied.

"well, since you cant perform infront of an audience, why not put your talent and knowledge into something else?"

"put it to what then?"

"well, why dont you try instructing?"

"thats not a bad ideea, but i dont get a teachers certificate until i pass my next exam, next summer"

"so?"

"so, i wont be able to charge for lessons or the people that i would teach, wont be able to be entered in exams and stuff because Im not a qualified teacher"

"so?"

"So, i cant teach, unless theres people out there who only wants to learn the first grade and not go through the exam"

"like me?"

"yeah, suppose, but its not like you would want to learn the standard that a 6 year pld would find easy"

"i didnt say that i wuld tell anybody about it, and besides, you could consider this as practice for when you do get your certificate thingy for teaching"

"where are you going shoes and stuff?"

"Im a wizard"

"true, ok, meet me here tomorrow half an hour after now, so can still keep practicing before hand, I guess Ill see you tomorrow"

"ok, but you cant get rid of me that easily, I am staying here tonight while you are here dancing" and with that, he poked his tounge out at her and turned back around for her to dance

"oh, very mature" she chuckled, made suree to skip the 'sexy tap' track and walked back to the middle to start dancing again.

"hey, isnt the... er... 'spanish' one before this?" Draco almost had to shout over the music over the music.

"yes why?" Draco was amazed at her multi-tasking skills, dancing and talking.

"why did you skip it?"

"because, Malfoy, Im not going to even think about doing "sexy tap", as you called it, in your presence, even if you are facing the away"

"awwww, you always spoil my fun"

Hermione didnt reply but chuckled lightly and continued dancing. After a few more tracks, Draco had been given permission to stand sideways on from Hermione, giving him very restricted but still a little bit of view. Although Hermione had closed her eyes, trying to forget that Draco had the ability of watching her dance, of course, he had pleaded to no end to let him watch and Hermione knew he wasntgoingt back down, so gave in and let him stand side ways on.

Once she had perfected half the tracks on the CD to her liking, she had decided to sto and finish for the night. She walked over to the CD player and turned it off, took a sip from her water bottle that was in her bag, sat down on the floor and started to change shoes. Once she had finally forced her shoes off her feet, she had to wriggle her toes to regain any sense of feeling in them. Before putting her black muggle converse back on, she felt the need to stretch the muscles in her legs as they were suddely so stiff.

She stood up, unaware that Draco was watching her like a hawk trying to figure out what the bloody hell she was doing. Once she had stood up, she grabbed hold of the table to keep her balance with her left hand, grabbed hold of her right ankel and pulled it under and around so that her ankle was now almost touching her behind, strecthing her thighs. She then did the same to the other ankle with the other hand. She could fee eyes on her, obviously Draco's, but chose to ignore them. She then sat back down on the floor, ber legs straight infront of her and bent down so her head was touching her knees, her hands were wrapped around her ankles. She remained in that position for about a minute before moving on.

After a minute, she swung her left leg, still sitting on the floor with her legs straight, behind her so she was now positioned in the right legged splits. She leaned forward so that her body was flat against her right leg and her hands once again round her ankle infront of her. She remained in this position for atleast 45 secons before shifting round to box splits and leaning forwards so that her stomach was flat on the floor infront of her, another 45 seconds passed by and she then shifted into the left splits and mirrored the position she was in during the right legged splits.

Hermione was completely oblivious to the cringing Draco standing behind her, watching her do the splits. His hands were over his crutch, he was cringing at the thought of the amount of pain he would go through if he had manouvered into any of the three positions demonstrated. To his relief, Hermione soon got up and slipped her converse and started to make her way to the door. Draco still stood, gob smacked that she felt no pain when she was stretching.

Hermione realised that she wasnt being followed and looked over at her shoulder to see Draco, stood still, mouth and eyes wide open just staring at her. She looked at him as if to 'come one then!' but he just stood there. She walked back over to Draco, grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room of requirement. Once they had to part ways, to reach their dormitories, they waved by without a word and parted ways.

Once at her dorm, Hermione was happy that she had a good dance session and was making a little progress with her stage fright, it may not be alot, but it was still progress. Once up in her bedroom, she stripped and redressed her self in lylac pyjamas and had one of the mpst pleasant nights sleep she had had in the last 2 weeks.

Once Draco had got back to his dormitories, he did the exact sam thing as Hermione, but the pyjamas were dark green, not lylac. He too, had a very good nights sleep.

A/N : sorry took so long, but atleast its up Now! Dont expect the next chapter to be up before the weekend though (just to warn you)


	8. Chapter 8

(skipping thursday morning-nothing worth mentioning happens)

It was now thursday, dinner in the great hall. Hermione, Ron and Harry were all at the gryffindor table, eating there supper peacefully with no conversation needed. That was all until Ron had stopped shoveling food into his pie hole...

"hermione, would you like to go to hogsmeade this weekend?" asked almost-as-red-as-his-hair ron.

"sure, ron, but i thought that we always do anyways" Hermione replied, slightly confused.

"no, i meant with me" Ron elaborated, blishing further (if possible)

"oh" was all Hermione could reply. Harry had to nudge her in the side with his elbow to remind Hermione that she hstill hadnt answered yet. "oh, sorry Ron, i would love to go with you, but i dont like that kind of way. I think of you as a brother and like-liking you would you would be really awkward and weird for me. i hope you understand. hey, why dint you ask Lavender? i heard shes had an eye on you for quite awhile" she finished off with a reassuring smile.

"yeah ok, dont worry about it, it was just a suggestion" he then resumed shoving truck loads of food into his mouth as if he hadnt even asked in the first place, but even though he plastered a smile onto his face, everyone still saw right through it and knew that he was hurting.

Hermione felt immensely guilty for causing Ron so much hurt and couldnt stand the tension as it had all became silent,she excused herself from the table and headed off to the library where she could relax fully and forget about Ron and the guilt.

Meanwhile, Draco and Blaise were on the other side of the great hall, eating peacefully ith the most smug looks on their faces. al the other slytherins were wondering what they were up to, but were afraid to ask to just brushed off the subject. Draco had watched Ron's rejection and couldnt help but smirk.

He didnt know why Blaise was looking so smug though, this was quite worrying; he was a slytherin. Draco had come to the conclusion that he had to be sure to extra careful when around his best friend now. he excused himself, explaining that he had forgotten something in his room and left without waiting for he response.

His fellow slytherins were more naive than he had thought them to be. They had all seen the way he had turned left; you have to turn right to go to the dungeons. He hadnt forgotten anything, and was definetely not going to the slytherin dormitories, h was infact going to the library, exactly where Hermione would be.

Once he had go there, he had noticed Hermione sitting at the table in the furthest corner from the entrance. isolated from everything else; more peaceful if you intend to read. He sat 2 tables away from her, her back facing him. he picked up a random book and let his eyes wonder over the top of the page, to where his 'like' not 'love' was; he may have admitted his feeling to Hermione but it was only 'like'.

Hermione was not as oblivious as he had thought, he soon learnt not to underestimate her of her awarness of her surroundings when he saw a paper butterfly swoop down and land on his table.

the note read;

_why did you follow me?_

He replied with;

_I didnt _

Once Hermione had received the reply, Draco saw her shake her head and immediately write down her reply before sendind it flying back to him.

_Im not an idiot_

_Excuse me but, i was quite happy readin when you accused me of following you_

_so you find reading upside-down, romance novels, enjoyable?_

once he had read her reply, he then realised that Hermione must eyes in the back of her head, he was infact holding the book upside-down, when he looked at the cover, it read 'black rose, a Witch's true love' he chuckled and stolled over to Hermione's table.

He grabbed a chair and slumped down on it after placing it at Hermione's table.

"ok, you got me, i just wanted to ask about tonight" he said, relaxed

"look, you dont have to do it if you dont want to, it was your idea after all, feel free to back out anytime" she gave him a friendly smile to say 'i-wont-rip-your-head-off-if-you-change-your-mind'

"no, no, um, i was just wondering where i could get the shoes from" he said leaning forward, he usually did this when he was thinking.

"dont worry, youre a wizard remember, thats what you told me last night" she said teasingly, putting her book down and turning to face more.

"yeah, well, i cant think of anything"

Hermione just chuckled at this and replied with "ill duplicate mine" Draco raised a questioning euebrow and gave gave her look that simply said 'are-you-mad?'

"but you have really small feet!"

"automatic adjustment charm you twat" she laughed "and hey, i thought you had already done this before" he gave her another questioning look. "you know, everyone tapping their feet when ever they were to see me, all wearing the exact same shoes"

Draco had finally caught on "oh yeah, sorry about that"

"nah, dont worry" she smiled.

"oh and um, what timw did you say that i should be there?" he asked

"around half seven?"

"yeah ok, ill see you at half seven then" he smiled, got up, and walked away, he could feel Hermione's eyes on his retreating back and smirked at himself.

Hermione was still in the library, re-reading the same sentence over and over and over again. She couldnt concentrate. She had started to enjoy taking to Draco. she was still aware that he had told her that he liked her, but was sure tha she didnt feel the same way about him. now she wasnt so sure.

A/N:sorry its short, next chapter will be up soon, on a matter of days maybe x


	9. Chapter 9

It was now half five and Hermione had just gotten back from the library. She was in her dorm and getting ready for her practise session. She got out her purple mckenzie bag and was now searching for her tapshoes. She found them under the bed, she put then into her bag, along with a bottle of coca-cola and a new CD; one for the music she was going to teach Draco to dance to, as it was not as fast as the the music she professionally dances to.

Hermione had put on an odd pair of socks; they were the first two socks that she had come across, a crop deep purple crop top/sports bra and a white vestop that had slits from under her arms that reached down to the middle of her stomach. She put on her dark blue hoodie, her black muggle converse and put her hair up in a messy pony tail before picking up her bag and leaving for the room of requirement.

It was now six o'clock and Hermione was rounding the last corner there was before was at the room of requirement when she heard very faint foot steps behind her. She turned around but saw no one. She was very anxious now; this was the same feeling she had before when Draco was following her. She turned back around and noticed the footsteps had resumed. She picked up her pace, only to hear the foot steps of the invisible fighure quicken aswell. She had decided to go against her initial plans of going to the room of requirement and headed for the library.

She had guessed that once the figure had realised that she was not going to practice tonight, they had stopped following her; she could no longer hear the sound of foot steps. 'well Im already going to the library, a few minutes reading wont hurt'

She reached the library and found her usual table, picked up the book that she was reading earlier an continued readin from where she left off.

It was twenty minutes past seven when she finally realised that she was suppose to meet Draco in ten minutes, she put the book down and began to walk speedily to the room of requirement. She realised that she had to start jogging/running when it was already twenty six minutes past and she wasnt even half way there yet.

Once she finally reached the room of requirement, it was thirty four minutes past seven. she saw Draco about to leave when she turned the last corner.

"Malfoy! wait!" he turned around and saw Hermione running towards him. she stopped right before him, placing her hands on her knees, bending over and panting. "sorry... heard footsteps... went library instead... started reading... lost track of time... ran here" she explained, between huge breathes.

Draco just chuckled at her and told her not to worry.

"boy, am I the most un-fit person in the world or what?" she asked, earning more chuckles from Draco. It was then that she realised the confirmation of her earlier thought, she was starting to develop feelings for Draco. She stopped the puffing and walked to the now appearing door by the wall.

Once the door was opened, she headed straight for the small table in the corner that ha a CD player on it. She opened it, exchanged discs from the one that was usually in there to the one she was using tonight with Draco. She then pulled out her tapshoes and, wandlessly, duplicated them. She handed them to a wide-eyed and stunned (at her magical abilities) Draco. as soon as he his flesh had come in contac with the shoes, they had enlarged to the appropriate size. He slipped them on, his eyes still focused on Hermione. She noticed his staring as she clicked her fingers and her shoes had been swapped from black converse to black leathr tapshoes. Even though her wand was resting on the table, next the CD player, where she had placed it a moment ago, she had not so much as touched it to perform the magic.

"what?" Hermione asked, slightly confused as to why Draco looked like a tuna fish.

"i could've sworn i just saw you do wandless magic" he said, still slightly dazed.

"you did" Hermione stated simply.

"h-how?" he asked.

"It's simple, just imagine your finger is the wand, thats what i do"

"O...K then"

Suddenly, the wall to left of the entrance was lined with mirrors. Hermione raised questioning eyebrow at Draco.

"not wandless, dont worry, the room sensed my need to check my reflexion" he smirked at her, turning to the mirrors and adjusting his hair.

"youre so vain" Hermione stated before chuckling. She walked up behind him, Draco watched in the mirror, curious to her actions. she ruffled his hair with her hand from behind him, and skipped to the CD player.

"UH! you did not just mess up my, Draco Malfoy's, hair!" he said now desperately trying to re-adjust it where it was before the ruffling.

"ah... but I did" Hermione responded. she now approached the front of him, her feet clicking against the floor as she did so, and ruffled his hair from the front, just to annoy Draco further. She then realised the danger she was in. She ran, as fast as you can run in tap shoes without falling on your back side, away from Draco.

Draco chased Hermione around the room, looking for his wand, realised that he left it with his shoes, by the wall, he decided to give this wandless magic stuff a shot. He pointed it at Hermione's head as she ran away from him and her hair band had snapped, realising her now-tamed, brown curls down her back. Once she had realised that her hair was loose, she slowed down, to a stop and turned around still laughing but slightly confused as to how how it happened. she gave Draco a qestioning look, yet again, and all he did in responce was point upwards with hir index finger and waggle it about, a smirk plastered on his face.

Hermione chuckled before congratulating him and turning back to the CD player, she took off her hoodie, to reveal the loose white vest top and purple crop top/sports bra.

Hermione walked back to the centre where Draco was. She had shown him the steps and he had followed correctly.

About half way through the session, Hermione had found another hair band inside her ag and had put her hair back in its original stae, a messy pony tail.

Once he had grade two accomplished, it was time around half nine, half an hour before Draco's curfew, Hermione didnt have a curfew; her being head girl.

She told Draco it was time to finish, who wined and pleaded for them to stay at her announcement. She gave in at the sight, and started to teach him the grade three warm up. He found this dance sequence slightly harder, but got the hang of it eventually. once he could finally do this, Hermione had told hime that it almost curfew and he agreed to finish.

"same time tomorrow, yeah?" Draco asked Hermione, swapping his shoes.

"yeah, if you want" she replied, her back facing him, taking the disc out of the CD player and putting it back in its case. She put the other disc in the player ready for tomorrow when she came to practice for herself.

"hey, erm, not that i dont want to be your friend after tonight, because I do, I just dont think we should act civil towards each other out side of this room" Draco said, sad from his sudden realisation that he would be dis owned by his fellow slytherins if they found out tha he was friends with a gryffindor.

"yeah, I understand, Harry and Ron would never speak to me again if they found out about this" Hermione replied, slightly hurt.

He walked up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her stomach "thanks, just remeber that IF i happen to say anything that would usually, I dont mean a word of it"

"i will" she replied, turning herself around, to face him, still wrapped in his arms, and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. They remained this way for a few minutes before Hermione looked up and said that she should go. Draco agrred and went over to his new tapshoes and reached down to grab them.

He opened the door for Hermione who had smile and walked through it. Once he had turned o walk towards the dungeons, the opposite direction of Hermione, he felt Hermione's hand ruffle his hair from behind once again. he chuckled and turned around to see Hermione's retreating back, her hips swaying. With a wave of his finger, her hair band had snapped and her hair was now cascading down her back once again. Hermione had laughed, turned around to see Draco standing there with a smirk on his face. She started walking backwards, waved at him, still chuckling. once he had waved back, she turned back around and began walking forwards again.

To Draco's disappointment, Hermione hadnt taken off the vest top that she was wearing to reveal the crop top all night. Draco made her repeat steps, claiming that he didnt quite understand, trying to exhaust her into taking it off. He had come to the conclusion that Hermione looked very sexy when she was all sweaty, dancing all around the place. Unbeknownst to Draco, Hermione had the very same opinion about him.

They had both reached their dorms simultaneously, slumped on to their beds, and both smiled at the new found friendship they had developed tonight.

Tomorrow night was going to be fun.

A/N : like I promised, the next chapter might take a while, anything up to 3 weeks maybe, sorry!


	10. Chapter 10

The next month for Hermione went by smoothly, Harry and Ron not doing any of their homework still, the encounters with Draco had been not as frequent but even when they did occur, Hermione knew that whatever was said was not true at all, and they would both apologise for anything they may have said to each other during the day when at their late night practice sessions.

Ron was now dating Lavender Brown, Harry was now dating Ginny and Hermione was still date-less, it didn't really matte to her though, she was happy now that she had someone to share her talent with and choreograph duets with.

Draco was now a high grade 4 and an almost grade 5, he was progressing rather rapidly, Hermione was very envious of this, it took her at least 6 months of classes for each grade, well, i suppose, its kinda equal; Draco would get around 30 lessons a month, Hermione only ever got 4-6 a month.

It was now the last day of November, close-ish to christmas. Hermione and Draco were practicing ripples (A/N:look on youtube-theyre too hard to explain via text) and he was doing really well, he still had a little trouble with the pick-up but was getting there.

There was a slight knock on the door, neither of the pair heard.

BANG BANG BANG!

Hermione had stopped focusing on Draco and walked to the door, that was suppose to be invisible from the outside.

'thats odd' thought Hermione. 'no-one's suppose to see the door from the other side'

Hermione walked over to the door. She wasnt quick enough, her hand was about to turn the handle when the person in question grew impatient and decided to burst the door down, using the 'reducto' spell.

Hermione was blasted all the way across the room, she hit the wall opposite frm the door and landed on her side. Draco came rushing to her side trying his best to stop the blood seeping from the back of her head.

He pressed the palm of his hand to the wound, hoping to atlest reduce the bleeding. He had totally forgot about the person at the door.

He turned his head once he realised there was someone watching, only to see a fuming Ronald Weasley.

Ron was standing at the door way, his hands balled up into fists at his side, his right hand looked like it was about to break his wand with how tight he was holding it.

Draco, coming to his senses, decided to act as maturely as possible; take care of Hermione now, break Ron later.

Draco picked Hermione up bridal style and carried her towards the door, where Ron still was.

"get her bags and follow me" Draco growled. Ron, just realising that he had hurt Hermione, the one and only Hermione who featured in many of his fantasies, did as he was told.

Draco, no longer wearing tapshoes, and Hermione now fully covered up (she was only wearing a croptop/sportsbra, as she was more comfortable around draco now) wearing her hoodie over the top. Draco hurried Hermione to the infirmary, all the while Ron hot on his heels.

"what on earth happened?" madam pomfrey practically sreeched once she saw Daco holding Hermione with a bleeding head, blood all over his arm where her head rested.

"uh..." Draco started as carefull laying Hermione down on the nearest empty bed. He glanced at Ron who had a pleading look in his eyes, sighing, he deciced to let Ron off but would definetely get him later. "She fell down the stairs and bumped her head on the way down"

Madame Pomfrey shiffted her eyeline from Draco to Hermione's feet, tapshoes, then back to Draco again, giving him one of the 'ok-now-give-me-the-true-story-I'm-not-an-idiot' looks.

"while wearing tapshoes" Draco finished, not sure what to say.

"ok then, thankyou for bringing Ms Granger here, she will be excused from her classes tomorrow and so will you Draco to take care of her during the day, be back here first thing in the morning to assist her back to the head dorms. Now both of you will be on your way, it is almost curfew and you wouldn't want to fdeal with Filch" said Madame Pomfrey, not even bothering to wait for their replies .efore starting to aid the wound on Hermione's head.

Draco and Ron walked out of the hospital wing in silence. Once out of the door, was when Draco decided to let loose of his anger.

"stupefy!" Draco shouted, wand pointed at Ron who was now lying on the floor.

When Ron found the strength to speak again all he said was "owwwwwww..."

"what the fuck made you destroy the room of requirement?!" shouted Draco, wand still pointed at Ron.

"I was curious and no one would answer when I knocked" Ron replied, standing up "now if you excuse me, i have to go and get some sleep" Ron pracically growled at Draco ... stupid boy.

"oh, no you dont, I want an explanation, a real one" Drao almost laughed at his poor attempt to avoid the situation at hand.

"you know what, fine" Ron huffed. "I was following her, and when I saw you go in about an hour after her and not come back out again, I began to feel... nervous, about what you two were doing. When I knocked, no one answred, when I banged on the door, still no answer, I didn't know what to do, I panicked"

Draco doubled over laughing, at what Ron had thouhgt he and Hermione had been doin in there. "I'm sorry, its just although you have no idea how much i would love for what you had thought we had been doing to actually be true... it wasn't and won't be... not yet, atleast"

Draco thought that this would be the best note to leave the conversation on, he would rather not head back to the hospital wing, even though he was the better wizard and would be able to beat Ron at duel even without a wand, he was not taking any chances.

Draco and the rest of the whole school knew about the huge crush Ron had on Hermione and that his dating Lavender was just a whole facade trying to make Hermione jealous, It didn't work though, it was obvious it wouldn't work connsidering it was Hermione herself who had suggested Lavender to Ron in the first place. Although no one apart from Draco Hermione herself, and maybe Ron knew about the feelings that Draco harboured for Hermione.

Draco walked back to the dungeons, without looking back to see what Ron's reation was, with a slight bounce in his step.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, that's when Draco will ask Hermione to be his girlfriend, and seeif she shares his feelings that he has towards her.


	11. Chapter 11

Hermione woke up the next morning feeling icky and stuffed up. She looked around and took in her surroundings, there wasn't much, just a white curtain and a bed side table. Hermione was really confused, she looked down at herself and saw that she her hoodie, crop top, leggins and socks; Madame Pomfrey had removed her shoes whilst she was asleep. This confused Hermione even more... Where the hell was she? She tried to sit up, but failed because her head felt like she was being bluggered in the head over and over.

Madame Pomfrey had heard the sudden movement and the groan and came rushing in with the pain relief potion and calming draught.

"oh, dear, dont move, it will just make the pain worse" advised Madame Pomfrey once she inside the curtain and next to Hermione's bed.

"where am I?" Asked Hermione.

"The hospital wing"

"why?"

"Mr Draco carried you here, with Mr Wealey in tow, said you fell down the stairs or something, I dont believe a word of it actually, I was hoping you would enlighten me, but considering you cant quite remember I doubt that will happen" Madame Pomfrey handed the vials to Hermione and instucted her to drink, Hermione did so, griamacing at the pain.

Instantly, Hermione felt the pain in her head ease and herself calm down.

"what time is it?"

"a little past ten, but dont worry about classes, its saturday" Madame Pomfrey smiled at Hermione before opening the curtains around Hermione's bed. Hermione noticed that outside of where the curtain was, was Draco asleep in a chair.

Hermione smiled to herself, Draco looked so cute, innocent and peaceful when he was asleep. Hermione reached out a hand and brushed back his hair, waking him up.

"morning" Hermione greeted him with smile.

"good morning, slee well?" Draco asked, with a smile, stretching his arms up and out.

" yeah, thanks for bringing me here" secretly, Draco wished that they could be more than just friends, maybe his reams would come true.

"well, thats what friends are for"

Hermione chuckled along with him before pausing and asking "what happened last night?"

Draco didn't know what to say, the truth would turn her against him but she wouldn't be happy, telling her a lie to spare her feelings seemed liike the best idea.

"you fell down the st-" he was cut off.

"bullshit" Hermione interrupted "you gonna tell me the truth or give me the same crap you gave Madame Pomfrey?" Hermione asked in a bored tone

'damn...' Draco thought.

"fine... Weasley blasted you across the room because of his impatience" Draco replied with a shrug.

"what do you "blasted me across the room?" she asked slowly.

"exactly that"

"ok... why?"

"he was being impatient waiting for you to open the door"

"what door?"

"the one to the room of requirement"

"you cant see that door from the outside, that's why you always find a book or something leaving the door ajar when I'm waiting for you every night"

"how am i suppose to know how he saw the bloody door?"

"nevermind... just start tfrom the beginning to end this time"

"well, you teaching me how to do those ripply things"

"ripples"

"yeah, whatever. Anyway, he knocked, you didnt hear, he banged, you heard and made your way to the door, apparently not quick enough, he thought we wee doing you know what or something" he winked an waggled his eyebrows suggestively, at which hermione slapped him on the arm and motione for him to carry on "so, panicking, he blasted the door down and you across the room with it" Draco replied simply, asif expliaing how to solve an eqution in arithmacy.

Once Hermione's brain had obsorbed al of this information, her eyes were narrowed, her breathing was heavy, her jaw was clenched, and she was slowly shaking her head whilst focusing on burning a whole through the wall across from her bed just with her glare. Draco had seen this glare once and once only, it was back in thrid year right before Hermione had lowere her wand and punched him in the face. Draco was quite scared now.

"ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." Hermione said, her voice just a deadly whisper. "just wait..." Draco was terrified now.


End file.
